When you equate two things, you treat them as equal or essentially the same. The word suggests making a connection between things that might seem different on the surface.

A teacher might tell you not to equate effort with results: just because you worked hard doesn't automatically mean you'll get a perfect score. Someone might wrongly equate being quiet with being shy, when really a person could be quiet for many reasons. In math, you equate expressions when you set them equal to each other, like when you write 2 + 3 = 5.

Equate often appears when someone is pointing out a faulty connection. “Don't equate popularity with happiness” means those two things aren't actually the same, even though people sometimes treat them as if they were. The word helps us think more carefully about whether the connections we're making actually hold up.